Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s triumphant return to the Cannes Film Festival, “It Was Just an Accident,” has won the Palme d’Or as the best film in competition at the festival, the Cannes jury announced on Saturday evening.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media.

Panahi, who spent almost 20 years in prison or under house arrest in Iran for making anti-government films, was allowed to leave the country and go to the festival for the first time in more than two decades with the film, which deals with victims of oppression who abduct a man they believe was their torturer in prison.

“The bracing thing about ‘It Was Just an Accident’ is that it has married Panahi’s wit and humanism with real anger,” said TheWrap’s review.“… In a festival full of fury, this is one of the films that hits hardest and resonates longest.”

The review also suggested that the film, which premiered on Tuesday, could be a likely winner: “The figure of the director standing on the stage after being banned for so long is simply too irresistible, and the movie is simply too good.”

After its premiere, Neon acquired distribution rights to the film, which now means that the company has distributed the last six consecutive Palme d’Or winners, beginning with “Parasite” in 2019 and also including “Titane,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Anatomy of a Fall” and last year’s winner, “Anora.”

Neon came to Cannes with deals to distribute two films in the main competition, Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha” and Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value.” During the festival, it made additional deals with three more contenders, “Sirat,” “The Secret Agent,” and “It Was Just an Accident.”

Four of Neon’s five main-competition films ended up with awards, with only “Alpha” going home empty-handed.

The runner-up award, the Grand Prix, was given to Joachim Trier’s family drama “Sentimental Value.” The third-place award, the Jury Prize, was shared by two dark and ambitious films, Oliver Laxe’s raucous road trip film “Sirat” and Mascha Schilinski’s century-spanning “Sound of Falling.”

Wagner Moura won the Best Actor award for his performance as a dissident on the run in Kleber Mendonca Filho’s Brazilian drama “The Secret Agent,” while the Best Actress award went to Nadia Melliti for “The Little Sister.”

Mendonca Filho also won the directing award for “The Secret Agent,” while the Dardenne brothers won the screenplay award for “Young Mothers.”

A special award went to “Resurrection,” the tw0-hour-and-40-minute fantasia from Bi Gan.

The Camera d’Or, which goes to the best first film from any section of the festival, went to Hasan Hadi for “The President’s Cake,” the first Iraqi film to win an award in Cannes. The film had previously won the audience award in the Directors’ Fortnight section.

The ceremony also included John C. Reilly singing the Edith Piaf classic “La vie en rose” before presenting the screenplay award.

The winners have been chosen by a jury headed by French actress Juliette Binoche. Other jurors included American actors Halle Berry and Jeremy Strong, Indian director Payal Kapadia, Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher, French-Moroccan writer Leila Slimani, Congolese director Dieudo Hamadi, Korean director Hong Sangsoo, and Mexican director Carlos Reygadas.

The 21 films in the main competition also included Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme,” Ari Aster’s “Eddington,” Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha,” Oliver Hermanus’ “The History of Sound,” Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” Sergei Loznitsa’s “Two Prosecutors,” Lynne Ramsay’s “Die My Love” and Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind.”